MOUSEION - Memorial University of Newfoundland

NOcrES MANILIANAE 117
astrologers and astronomers. then and now. Book 3 discusses how the
stars determine the human lifespan. That of course was of crucial interest
to astrologers then. and to Housman as well. an adept astrologer
himself.? But Manilius was at pains to spike that particular gun. and left
his formula for calculating the total lifespan deliberately incomplete: he
explicitly says that he will not discuss the years allotted by the Quarters
(3.583-85), or the Moon and Planets. Nor does he provide any formula.
here or later. for combining the allotments and influences of the stars
and planets; book 3 only treats the stars. 8 Nor does he work through a
specimen lifespan and how it could be calculated; or conversely how an
astrologer could predict a lifespan from a given horoscope and its variables
(temples. athla. decans. dodecatemories).
Books 4 and 5 then demonstrate the influence of each constellation on
individual natives and collectivities both (e.g. Rome); once again. there is
no formula for combining the various influences. In sum. the five books
are useless for predictive astrology. whatever the overlap. Instead they
exemplify piecemeal the divine governance of the universe by the stars.
the embodiment of Reason (1.456-531). Housman's assumption that the
poem is astrology in any practical sense is simply false. What he expected
to find there. or wanted to, is not to the point.
Housman's second assumption is that explication of a text depends
on parallels from other authors. as opposed to explication on its own
terms. Little in the conclusion of Book 3. or elsewhere in Manilius. enjoys
a parallel in later astrologers-and they are all later. His astronomy
is pre-Ptolemaic and ill-attested; astrology was itself a science in its
infancy. Moreover, Manilius was the first Roman to treat either at
length 9 ; but nothing follows from any of this. least of all a cause for
7See Graves (1980) 215-217: his interest "does not. of course. mean he had
any personal belief" in astrology. In childhood. his siblings played Solar System
on the lawn. with himself the chief luminary; later his own horoscope was cast
by a friend (n.s.. with Uranus), and he reciprocated. Goold's "consummate astrological
scholar" ([1977] ix) avoided hard problems. though; d. n. 34 below.
H At 3.585 cum bene constiterit steIJarum conditus ordo. "When planets
suitably arranged concur." merely has the planets ratify the stellar allotments.
assuming that the verse refers to planets. It is syntactically independent and
detachable; so also 2.644, 2.651. 2.689. 2.835 and 3.508 (likely 2.738-49 as well).
which refer to the planets and have been condemned on other grounds. An interpolator
tried to harmonize Manilius with later dogmas at 2.732-34 and
2.978-80 (d. Goold [1977]liii-liv. Ixi-Ixii); presumably the planets were foisted
onto the text at the same time. They play no part in stellar computations. by
definition; their irregularity or "difference" was as much an embarrassment to
Manilius as to Plato (d.. e.g.. Ti. 36b-d).
9 Manilius stands late in the didactic tradition. of coul'se. But his is always
"the first treatment of astrology" vel sim. More precisely. it is the first complete